DD 51 
.5 
.B2 
Copy 1 



ROMAN' AND PRE-HISTORIC REMAINS IN 
CENTRAL GERMANY. 



BY 



EDWIN SWIFT BALCH. 



Reprinted from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, 
January, 1903. 



PHILADELPHIA 





THl£ L.BR/*i-!Y OK 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received j 

JAN 15 1903 

Copyiiglit Entry [ 
cuss ^X^ XXo, No. 
COPY^ B. ' J 



V- 



,. Reprinted from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Janu.ary, 1903. 

Mechanical and Engineering Section. 

Stated Meeting, held Thursday, December 4, igo2. 

Roman and Pre-Historic Remains in Central Germany/ 

By Edwin Swift Balch. 



In Central Germany, in the province of Hesse Nassau, 
there are numerous remains of the Romans and some even 
more interesting ones of the primitive Germans. German 
archaeologists have given a good deal of attention to these 
remains during the last quarter of a century; and they 
have brought to light many facts in connection with the 
early history of man in Germany.^ Passing over the times 
of feudalism, when the barons planted their strongholds on 
many a steep hill, and going back to the beginning of the 
Christian era, one finds that about the middle of the first 
century a.d., the Romans invaded the plains of Hesse 
Nassau, then inhabited by Germanic tribes, and established 
themselves south of the Taunus. The Romans soon found 
the need of protecting themselves in their new " sphere of 
influence " and they erected a line of fortifications from the 
Rhine to the Danube. The peasants formerly called this 



' Copyright, 1902, by Edwin Swift Balch. 

^This paper is based partly on considerable personal observation and partly 
on the books, papers and verbal statements of the Koniglich Baurat L, Jacobi, 
who has devoted his life to the exploration of these remains, and whose writ- 
ings are a mine of information. I wish to express my indebtedness to this 
distinguished German archaeologist. 

Among the publications about Roman remains in German}^, are : 

Jacobi, L. Baumeister : " Das Romerkastell Saalburg bei Homburg vor der 
Hohe," Homburg vor der Hohe, 1897. One volume, with maps and plates 
separate. This book includes an exhaustive bibliography. 

Cohausen, A. von: "Der Romische Grenzwall in Deutschland," Wies- 
baden, 1884. 

Cohausen, A. von, and Jacobi, L.: "Das Romerkastell Saalburg," Hom- 
burg vor der Hohe, Staudt & Supp, 1902. Guide Book. 

Bliimlein, Karl : "Die Saalburg," 1901. 

Schulze, Dr. P>nst : " Romisches Soldatenlebeu in den Taunus Kastellen," 
J-.ankfurt A.M., H. Berchtold, 1898. 

.t 




The Saalburg. 
From the maps of Baurat L. Jacobi. 









o 




U 




a 




o 
















d 


'A 


cd 




w 


<i 


?» 


rt 


^ 


o 


;z; 


W 
< 


e/1 

CO. 




^ 




►v 


w 


^ 


w 


0) 


H 


^ 




p4 


i5 


rt 


o 


bfl 




o 








O 




^ 




ft 




a 




o 



{J* 



the Teufelsmauer, but it is now known as the Pfahlgraben, 
a name explained by some students as meaning a bound- 
ary, while others consider that it comes from the Latin 
vallum. The Pfahlgraben consisted of an earthen wall, 
and in some places of a wall and a ditch, and it can 
still be followed with ease throughout most of its length, 
especially in hilly and wooded places, where peasant farm- 
ers have had no opportunity of leveling it. The Pfahl- 
graben, which is about 542 kilometers long, begins near 
Honningen on the Rhine, follows roughly the watershed of 
the Taunus Range, and after making a big curve north- 
ward, strikes the Main a little east of Frankfurt. It starts 
again at the southerly bend of the Main, goes some distance 
nearly south, and then almost due east a good distance to 
the Danube, which it reaches near Hienheim in the neigh- 
borhood of Regensburg. Although it is not known exactly 
when the Pfahlgraben was built, nor when it was aban- 
doned, yet it is certain that it was constructed by the Ro- 
mans, and that during portions of the first three centuries 
of the Christian era Roman soldiers stood on guard upon 
it. The Pfahlgraben, which from a political standpoint was 
not unlike the great Chinese Wall, was untioubtedly mainly 
intended to ward off the attacks of the unsubdued tribes of 
]S[orthern and Eastern Germany, of whom the Chatten and 
the Allemannen were the most hostile ; but it must also 
have been used as a tariff frontier, to levy tribute on any 
persons who crossed to the south. The reasons for locating 
a part of it north of the natural frontier of the Main are not 
self-evident; still it is noticeable that the mineral springs 
of Wiesbaden, Homburg and Nauheim are south of it, and 
the desire to profit by their beneficent waters may have 
been one of the causes which made the Romans enclose 
this country. For a time the barrier appears to have served 
its purpose, until, with the increasing degeneracy of the 
Homan empire, the sturdy northern barbaric element over- 
whelmed the enervated southern race. 

Behind the Pfahlgraben, at comparatively short intervals, 
-were about eighty large and small fortified camps and 
towers, where bodies of troops were held in garrison. The 



5 

most important of these posts in the Tattnus are known as 
the Kapersburg, the Zugmantel and the Saalburg. The 
latter, situated in one of the gaps of the Taunus, overlooks 
Bad Homburg, from which it can be reached in half an hour 
by trolley. It is now being restored entirely, but as late as 
1872 it was little but a ruin in the forest, where only the 
foundations of fortifications and house walls and a few holes 
in the ground were visible. 

There do not appear to be any written records from 
Roman times of the Pfahlgraben or the Saalburg ; neither 
are there any legends connected with them, and the valu- 
able help to history, therefore, occasionally afforded by 
myths, is in this case wanting. Our present knowledge is 
based practically on the remains of the foundations and on 
the relics found among them. But little as we know of the 
history of these old fortifications, yet there can be no doubt 
that the Latins and the Teutons once struggled for supremacy 
along them, and that the former were conquered and retired. 
And as one follows the lines of the Pfahlgraben and the 
ruined Kastells one cannot avoid the reflection that a great 
empire, advanced and civilized though it was, but with its 
members weakened physically and morally by centraliza- 
tion and the destruction of individualism, could not with- 
stand the assaults of a ruder but stronger race, with its 
units undeteriorated by overcrowding and overgovernment. 

The name Saalburg may come from the word saal, mean- 
ing hall, or sal, meaning boundary, but the origin of the 
name is still uncertain. The first writer known to use the 
name was the Homburger, Elias Neuhof, who mentions the 
Saalburg in a letter in 1747, and who wrote a short account 
of it in 1777. He saw it still in a state of tolerable repair, 
although it had served as a quarry of ready- cut blocks of 
stone to the neighboring peasants, and although many of 
its stones had been carried off for building the castle and 
the Lutheran Church at Homburg in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries. It was only in 18 18 that the taking 
away of the stone was stopped, and not until 1853 that the 
first diggings were undertaken by the antiquarian, F. G. 
Habel. In 1870, Colonel A. von Cohausen was entrusted with 



the excavations and repairs at the Saalburg, and in 1871, 
Koniglich Baurat L. Jacobi joined him, and under his 
guidance the work is still carried on. The Homburg " Saal- 
burg- Verein " furnished some of the money, the Emperors 
William I and Frederick III likewise assisted with funds, 
and the present sovereign in 1897 ordered the reconstruc- 
tion of the central building. The rejuvenating of the Saal- 
burg is progressing slowly but steadily, and each year sees 
a certain amount of reconstruction carried out, as well as a 
certain number of archaeological finds. Every care is taken 
to insure the utmost possible accuracy in reconstruction. 
Roman camps similar in character have been examined in 
other parts of the world, for instance, near Pre jus and 
Cannes in France and near Lambaesis in Algeria, and these 
have been followed in many details. Roman authors, like 
Csesar and Tacitus, have been studied diligently for every 
passage which might bear on the subject, and it is safe to 
assume that the new Saalburg will closely resemble the 
original. Certain persons take exception to the rebuilding 
of the Saalburg, but it may be well to suggest in rebuttal 
that no ruin would give the same impression of reality as 
the restored building, and, moreover, that there are some 
seventy-nine other camps of the same kind in a state of 
ruin. 

The Saalburg was a fortress, but one practically con- 
structed on the lines of a Roman military encampment, and 
it may perhaps better be designated as a permanent fortified 
military camp than as a fort. There is little doubt that, in 
the order of time, there were three permanent camps at the 
Saalburg. The first was probably an earthwork, and was 
much the smallest. The second, it is believed, was of wood 
and was probably destroyed by fire, possibly after a fight. 
Various remains have been discovered leading to these con- 
clusions. The third camp was built almost on the lines of 
the second and was surrounded by a stone wall whose out- 
side dimensions were 221*45 meters in length by I47"i8 
meters in breadth ; that is, the sides had a relation of 2 to 3. 
The wall was about 2*50 meters in height and was crene- 
lated, to allow the legionaries to hurl their pihmis or throw- 



ing spears through the openings. On the outside it was 
surrounded by a double, probably dry ditch, while on the 
inside it was banked up with earth, forming a platform for 
the soldiers to stand on. On each side was a gate : to the 
south the Porta Decumana, to the north the Porta Prae- 
toria, to the east the Porta Dextra and to the west the 
Porta Sinistra. The Porta Decumana had a double entrance 
and the other three only one each, and each of these gates 
was flanked by two small towers. The northern and 
southern gates were in the middle of their respective sides, 
while the eastern and western ones, through which it is 
believed the troops made sorties, were at one-third the 
distance from the southern end and faced exactly the doors 
of the main building. 

The southern wall and half of the eastern wall, and the 
Porta Decumana and the Porta Dextra are already rebuilt 
as well as the Prsetorium within. Over the outside of the 
Porta Decumana is an inscription : " Guilelmus II Frederici 
III Filius Guilelmi Magni Nepos Anno Regni XV in 
memorian et honorem parentum castellum limitis Saalbur- 
gense restituit." In front of the gate is a statue of green 
bronze with some gilt decorations : it is by a German 
sculptor, I. Gotz, and is inscribed : " Imperatori Romanorum 
Tito Aelio Hadriano Antonino Augusto Pio Guilelmus II 
Imperator Germanorum." 

The interior of the Saalburg is an almost level rectangu- 
lar space which slopes gently towards the north and in the 
center of which is the Prsetorium. The southern end is 
spoken of as the Retentura, the northern end as the Praeten- 
tura, and the eastern and western parts as the Latera 
Prsetorii. 

The Retentura, which was farthest from the enemy, was 
the place for the commissariat and quartermasters' depart- 
ments. In the eastern half are the remains of the Horreum 
or provision house, as is demonstrated by the cross walls 
still remaining and the hooks for hanging meat found there. 
In the western half of the Retentura are the remains of 
what is called the Qusestorium, which may have been the 
officers' quarters. 






J3 




O 


ft 
o 


s 




nl 


Y. 


a 


O 

t— 1 


u 


H 


V 


<« 


^ 


fi 




Z 


xi 


D 




O 


^ 



II 

The Praetentura, at the northern end nearest the enemy, 
was the quarter of the soldiers, who lived there either in 
tents or in wooden huts. Here, somewhat sunk in the 
ground, is a small circular ring, which was at first supposed 
to be an amphitheatre ; but as many horseshoes were found 
there, it seems most probable that it was a riding ring. At 
the northeastern end of the Praetentura are the remains of 
a bath which dates back probably to the earliest earthwork 
camp and which does not appear to have been used at the 
latest period. This bath consisted of two main parts. One 
with a seat in it was a cold-water bath. The other was 
heated from underneath and was subdivided into two por- 
tions, of which one was a warm-water bath and the other 
probably a hot-air bath. 

The Prastorium, which is 60 meters long and 40 meters 
wide, is in the position where the tent of the commander 
was placed in a flying Roman camp. It is now almost 
restored and is to be used as a museum for the various finds. 
The southern end is a big wooden-roofed hall with stonewalls 
in which are two stories of windows of which the upper ones 
are the biggest. It is supposed that during bad weather the 
soldiers were drilled and practised in throwing the pilum 
and vaulting on a wooden horse in this hall. Adjoining this 
to the north is the Atrium, a courtyard open to the sky and 
surrounded by a wooden-roofed piazza. In the Atrium are 
two wells, one with a wooden, the other with a thatched roof, 
and the remains of a little building of uncertain date and 
use, but which was perhaps a Sacellum for the first or second 
camp. On the east and west sides of the Atrium, beyond 
the piazza, are long narrow chambers and to the north is 
another smaller court, beyond which are several more rooms. 
The middle one of these was probably the latest Sacellum, 
where the military insignia and the statues of the gods and 
emperors were kept. 

Immediately around the Saalburg there are many ruins. 
To the east and west the foundations of many small houses 
show that there must have been something of a settlement. 
To the south are the remains of many Canabae, i. c, houses 
of suttlers and camp followers and also drinking shops, 



12 

probably not unlike our saloons. Immediately before the 
western front of the south wall are the foundations of the 
so-called " villa," which was possibly the house of the com- 
mander in peace times, or which may have been an officers' 
club, and where at the proper season wild strawberries now 
grow in abundance. There appears to have been a bath 
here, or at least there is a heating apparatus under one room. 
From the Porta Decumana a road led south to Heddernheim 
in the valley of the Nidda, and on both sides of this, some 
300 meters from the gate, was a burying ground, where some 
350 graves have been discovered. The dead were cremated 
and the ashes placed in an urn, together with small jugs, 
pieces of — often false — money and other small articles. 

The water supply depended on wells, of which fifty-eight 
have been found up to date. Eight of these are in the 
camp. Almost every small house had its own well. The 
oldest have wooden sides, while the later ones have walls of 
stone without mortar. The dirty water was carried away 
by drains or canals, some of which still act. 

The heating system was ingenious. A shallow cellar was 
dug and a number of low brick pillars erected. These sup- 
ported a floor of terra cotta tiles and concrete. Outside of 
the house was a sort of oven, which had an opening into the 
cellar, and the cellar was also connected with the outer air 
by terra cotta pipes placed against the inside of the walls 
and opening at the roof or within the room. A wood-fire 
was built in the oven and the hot air went into the cellar 
and enough of it rose through the terra cotta pipes to keep 
up a slow draught. The floor and the walls were gradually 
heated up and the room was doubtless kept warm for a 
rather long time. 

Many articles have been dug up at the Saalburg, prin- 
cipally under the ruins or in the wells. Some of these are 
primarily of historic importance. Such for instance are 
numerous terra cotta slabs bearing inscriptions like the fol- 
lowing : " C O H. II. R A E T " (Cohort II. of the Rhetii) ; 
"COH. III. VIND" (Cohort III of the Vindelicii). 
These prove that some of the troops stationed along the 
Pfahlgraben were German auxiliaries, and it may well be 



,13 

that, tired with the overbearing Romans, when the last 
strug-gle occurred, they fraternized with their oncoming 
relatives and took their share in ending the Roman domina- 
tion in a turmoil of blood and fire. 

Many coins have been dug up, and these give a tolerably 
accurate means of estimating the duration of the Roman 
sojourn. Twenty-two coins date from 268 to 30 B.C., a few 
belong to the reigns of the earlier emperors, but it is in the 
reign of Vespasian (69-79 a.d.) that they first become 
numerous, and it was doubtless about that time that the 
Saalburg was started. There are many coins with the effi- 
gies of Domitian (81-96); Trajan (98-117); Hadrian (117- 
138); Antoninus Pius (138-161); Marcus Aurelius(i6i-i8o); 
Septimus Severus (194-211); Heliagabalus (218-222); Sev- 
erus Alexander (222 235) ; and Gordianus III (238-244). 
The latest ones are of the reigns of Valerian (253-259) and 
Claudius Gothicus (268-270). It is probably not far out of 
the way to assume that Roman control of the Taunus came 
to an end about that time after lasting some two centuries. 

Some of the finds are chiefly of archaeological and ethno- 
logical interest. Such for instance is the pottery in the 
shape of amphoras, jars, etc., of which much has been dug 
up; but especially noteworthy are the broken panes of 
glass of which many pieces were found in the " villa," for 
they show that in northern climes the Romans used glass 
windows. The panes range from a light green to a dark- 
blue color, and they were about 40 centimeters bv 40 centi- 
meters. 

Among the iron relics the horseshoes are most note 
worthy. A number have been fojnd in the riding ring, 
and they show that the Romans, in Germany at least, used 
them. Shoes for mules and oxen are also not uncommon. 
The spurs were cleverly made, as the shank did not point 
straight from the middle of the heel but curved somewhat 
outward : there was thus no danger of the rider accidentally 
striking his horse, for he had to turn his toes out and bring his 
heels well in to spur him. In this implement the Romans 
were ahead of any other people. Few weapons have turned 
up, probably because thev would be most jealously cared 



14 

for from their great value to friend and foe in such a wild 
region. Tools, on the contrary, are rather numerous, and 
the hammers, saws, axes, nails — but no screws — are much 
like those still in use in Germany. A number of the tools 
are for left-handed workmen. One small garden pick is so 
exactly like a Swiss ice-axe, that one might almost assert 
that it was an ice-axe. The works of art are unimportant, 
consisting principally of a few little bronze statuettes. 

Over a hundred and fifty articles of leather have been 
taken out of the wells, where the mud seems to have acted 
as an air-tight preserver. The most important are one 
leather jacket and a number of sandals and shoes. No 
entire pair of these has turned up, but only worn out single 
specimens, some shaped like an undeformed foot, but many 
ending in a point in the middle of the toes. 

Of the animal bones discovered, all belong to now exist- 
ing species, except a few of the aurochs {bos iirus) and the 
swamp-boar (Sumpschwein, siis scrofa palustris). It is not 
wonderful that stag and roedeer remains are plentiful, for 
these animals may be seen constantly in the vicinity of the 
Saalburg, and the gates have to be barred at night to pre- 
vent their coming in to feed. Indeed, Herr Georg Baer of 
Homburg tells me that some years ago he saw stags fight- 
ing in the Saalburg, while the hinds were looking on. 

Leaving the Saalburg and following for about 3 kilo- 
meters eastward the Pfahlgraben, which there consists of an 
earthen rampart with a beveled edge and a ditch, one 
reaches the foundations of the small square fort, now known 
as the Lochmiihle, which was doubtless the post of the garri- 
son which kept guard in the thalweg of the Koppern Thai. 
Continuing along the Pfahlgraben and passing the founda- 
tion-wall of a small Roman tower, after about 6 kilometers 
more through beautiful woods, one arrives at the Kapers- 
burg. 

The Kapersburg resembles the Saalburg, but it is not 
more thaa half the size, and it is still even more untouched 
than was the Saalburg thirty years ago. It is surrounded 
by a ruined wall in which there are four gates. There are 
the foundations of a prsetorium and several other buildings 



15 

within, and so far three wells have been discovered. A 
bath or villa situated between the Kapersburg and the 
Pfahlgraben is now being ransacked. This has the remains 
of heating apparatus, and coins, bronze ornaments, pots, 
etc., are often turned up, Herr Jacobi told me that, as at 
the Saalburg, remains of three sets of forts in the order of 
time exist at the Kapersburg. The walls can be followed 
only with difficulty, and the whole place is hard to examine, 
as it is full of pitfalls and it is covered with a dense growth 
of thorny brushwood, in which my companion. Professor 
George F. Barker, and I once started a roedeer. 

Even more interesting and much less known than the 
Roman remains, however, are those of the early native 
races. A certain number of their architectural efforts have 
come down to us, and these are a mute comment in show- 
ing the danger these peoples were constantly in from their 
brother savages. These earliest constructions are the walls 
— generally of a fairly circular form and hence now called 
ringvdlle — which undoubtedly were refuge forts, to which 
the native inhabitants fled for shelter with their cattle at 
the approach of an enemy. These ringwalls are generally 
on hill tops, and, as a rule, are partly surrounded by a ditch. 
There is no trace of mortar — which was doubtless unknown 
to the native builders — among the stones of these ringwalls, 
and it is believed that they were held together by layers of 
wooden beams, and that it is owing to the rotting away of 
the latter that the stones have sunk together into long 
heaps. According to Caesar, the Gauls built forts with the 
stones of the walls bound together by layers of wood, and a 
bass-relief on the Trojan column shows similar forts as in 
existence among the Dacians. This gives a clue to the date 
of these German ringwalls. Although they may have been 
used in post-Roman times, yet they were probably in use 
at the arrival of the Romans. It would seem likely, there- 
fore, that they were erected by a Celtic or Germanic people 
in a bronze age, but it is not impossible that they originated 
long before with a people in a Neolithic stage of develop- 
ment. 

Half an hour's walk from the Saalburg is one of these 



i6 

ringwalls, the Gickelsburg, which is so hidden in the forest 
that it is hard to find. It is 220 meters by 165 meters in 
dimension, and the rather small stones have sunk together 
into a long, oval heap. The finest of these ringwalls in 
Central Germany, however, is the one on the Altkonig, above 
Falkenstein, which is in full sight of Homburg and easily 
accessible. I examined it in company of Professor George 
F. Barker. This fort has a double line of walls, both in good 
preservation, which entirely surround the summit plateau 
of the mountain, enclosing a space several hectares in 
extent. Each wall, at present, must be some 8 or 10 meters 
in breadth by about 3 meters in height, so that the original 
dimensions may be estimated at some 5 or 6 meters in 
breadth, by the same in height. The stones average in 
size from perhaps the bulk of an orange to that of a large 
watermelon, although there are some few bigger ones. 
They are evidently the mountain stone brought together 
and piled up, and Professor Barker thought they were all a 
quartzose sandstone. We saw no traces of wood or vitrifi- 
cation, which latter occurrence, probably caused by fire, is 
found occasionally in the somewhat similar "vitrified forts " 
of Scotland. At the eastern base of the Altkonig is the Alten- 
hofe, another single-walled ringwall, smaller and less perfect 
than the one on top. 

A certain number of the implements of the early Ger- 
mans have also been obtained in the Taunus and in the 
plains of Hesse Nassau. In 1880, near the Ferdinands 
platz in Bad Homburg, a great find of bronze implements 
and weapons was made. Among these are axes or celts, 
lance-heads, some plaques or bosses for shields, bracelets, 
sickles, etc. They may date to 600 or 800 B.C. It is possi- 
ble that some of them were cast in the neighborhood of 
Homburg itself, but it is probable that most of them were 
made in Bologna, Italy, and that they reached Germany 
through regular trading. They would seem to show that 
the Germanic peoples, for some centuries before the Roman 
invasion, were in a bronze age. 

Neolithic implements also are found in Hesse Nassau. 
While the smooth-stone axes and tools are not numerous, 



yet enough have been dug up to make certain the fact that 
some thousands of years before the Christian era, savage 
Neolithic tribes shared the still virgin forests with the 
aurochs, the bear and the Ivnx, and that they slowly carried 
forward the evolution of man in Central Germany. When 
the use of these instruments began and when it stopped is 
not known, but in July, 1902, while digging up the earth at 
the Porta Sinistra of the Saalburg, two small smooth-stone 
implements were found in the same layer with Roman 
remains, and this is a noteworthy piece of evidence that the 
use of smooth- stone implements may have continued until 
the beginning of the Christian era. 

A few chipped rough-stone arrow-heads have also been 
found in Hesse Nassau. The specimens look exactly like 
North American Indian arrow-heads. They are probably 
Paleoliths, but the evidence is still meager about the earliest 
peoples of Central Germany. 



2t 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 

029 950 953 9 



